Aichi "Ai" Sendou
(If you are looking for a different Aichi Sendou please go here: Aichi Sendou (Disambiguation)) Aichi "Ai" Sendou is a shy 15 year old girl that plays "Cardfight!! Vanguard", the most popular card game nowadays with hundreds of millions of people around the world playing it (at least in her universe). Ai is played by CrystalMemoria. Pre-Room History Pre-Cardfight!! Vanguard When she was a child she was often bullied relentlessly by other children. She was miserable and lonely, but that changed when he met a girl named Tomoko Kai. Kai saw her walking by after being treated cruelly by other kids and gave her a Vanguard card: Blaster Blade. She told Ai to imagine herself like the warrior on the card and that it would give her strength. Ai claimed she couldn't, but Kai assured her that someday she would be able to. This moment was a massive turning point in Ai's life and she decided to make a Vanguard deck. When she worked on it she could forget all of the misery her life had. She also wanted to have the chance to thank Kai through a battle, but sadly Kai moved away before she could... During Cardfight!! Vanguard A few years passed and Ai met Kai once more. However, she seemed to be much colder and distant than she was during their first meeting. Kai had a match against Ai to teach her how to play Vanguard when she was trying to retrieve her stolen Blaster Blade from her. After meeting with her once again Ai wanted to become stronger to be worthy of Kai's attention. Vanguard led Ai to a whole new world. She got friends and slowly, but surely, began to improve as a cardfighter. She eventually ended up part of a cardfighting team named Team Q4 (Short for "Quadrifoglio" Italian word for "four-leaf clover"). She's a member along with Kai, Masami Tokura, a card shop cashier that is a new Vanguard player and has perfect memory, and Kasumi Katsuragi, a fiery elementary school student that has a crush on Aichi's brother. Though the team made it through the regionals (although not without difficulties) they failed to make it through the nationals and were eliminated during the elimination round. After their major loss the leader of an opposing team, Ren Suzugamori from Team Foo Fighter, insulted Ai, told her that it was her fault that Team Q4 lost, and caused her to fall into something of a depression. Thankfully Kai managed to snap her out of it later with rather harsh, but also helpful, words. Throughout the time the team spent battling Ai found herself having visions and hearing her cards' voices. These visions and voices led her to victory to multiple times. She was convinced that she was becoming stronger and more worthy of Kai's attention. However, these strange powers did not come without side effects. She seemed to become more cocky and cold when she played Vanguard. She would also become very faint after using these powers and would become weak. Kai, unnerved by these powers and seemingly familiar with them, told Ai that she's become weaker. Ai, who was upset by these words, told Kai to just fight her so she can show Kai how she's gotten stronger. Kai refused and said she couldn't fight her. She left and told the others that she was quitting Team Q4. This upset Ai greatly and led her to be swayed by Ren Suzugamori who had the same strange power Ai had, known as PSY Qualia. Ren convinced Ai to take a Shadow Paladin deck claiming that it would give her great power... power that she needed to impress Kai. This was Ai's fall into darkness. She became obsessed with power and made her opponents grovel before him when she defeated them. She kept becoming more and more obsessed... before Kai finally realized that she could do something to stop this before it was too late. She didn't want Ai to end up obsessed with power like Ren was. After a tense battle Kai managed to reach out to Ai and made her snap out of it by telling her that PSY Qualia wasn't true strength. Ai then realized that she didn't need PSY Qualia and that she had inner strength (courage) the entire time. Ai also realized what a jerk she had been and started using her Royal Paladins once more. Team Q4 went on to the finals of the national Vanguard tournament. She was supposed to go against Ren during the finals... Room History ...However she appeared in the Room. She was very confused and was about to try to find someone to ask what was going on, but before she could she was stopped by a splitting PSY Qualia induced headache as she gained the memories of the other Aichi. It was extremely confusing for her as the memories up to a certain point were near identical to her own, but with opposite gendered versions of her friends. ...And then she gained memories of the Room as well. She had never been there before, but she suddenly knew a bit about some of Aichi's friends in the Room and the way around the Room itself (for the most part). It really startled her because it seriously felt like she was the one that experienced those things, but at the same time she knew that she wasn't. She didn't have much time to question what happened or try to let her headache settle down when Sthesia walked into the Main Room. She saw Ai and at first mistook her for the Aichi she knew, but quickly seemed to realize something with up with Ai. Ai explained her predicament and Sthesia offered to call Leos to see if they could figure out what was going on. Leos, who was on the roof with the male Aichi, came downstairs with Aichi in tow. Both of them were confused by this new female Aichi. It was quickly established that both Aichi and Ai got each others' memories due to them being linked by their PSY Qualia. It was also quickly realized that nicknames might be a good idea due to the two being so similar and having the same name. After some consideration they established the nickname "Ai" for the female Aichi while the male Aichi remained just "Aichi". Personality Ai is, for the most part, extremely similar to Aichi (as they are the same person). She may be somewhat more soft-spoken. She also seems to have a few more girlish traits. She seems to be fond of cute things. Equipment and Abilities Abilities Besides being able to play Cardfight!! Vanguard, Ai has a strange power called PSY Qualia. The true nature of this ability is unknown to Ai, but things it can do include letting users hear the voices of their cards to guide them in cardfights, let them make their opponent feel the damage their Vanguard would feel when attacked, apparently having a deck build itself for you while you're having a vision, and many other undiscovered (at least to Ai) abilities. These effects seem to only activate while cardfighting or while building a deck. However, there are apparently circumstances outside of the context of Vanguard. After all Ai and Aichi gained each other's memories through their PSY Qualia upon Ai's arrival in the Room. Ai avoids this power because she worries that she'll become power-hungry like she did when she started using it. She became cold, cocky, and obsessed with power and proving to Kai that she's become stronger. Ai snapped out of it, but she stills wants to avoid using PSY Qualia at all costs. For the most part she can keep her powers in check during a cardfight, but there's no guarantee. Equipment/Possessions She has one whole deck and one partial deck with her. Her Royal Paladin deck is completed while her Shadow Paladin deck is missing 4 cards (which she put into her Royal Paladin deck) and is unable to be used in a cardfight. Relationships Friends * Aichi Sendou: Ai feels a natural kinship with Aichi for very obvious reasons. * Leos Alloy: Although Ai hasn't known Leos long she feels like they're good friends due to Aichi's memories (although she's aware that it's mostly Aichi's memories compelling her to feel that way). She hopes to be real friends with him. Also she feels rather strange around him sometimes. Weird. * Sthesia Awar: Similar to how she is with Leos she feels like they're good friends, but she's aware that it's mostly Aichi's memories talking. She hopes to be real friends with her as well. * Misaki Tokura: Ai seems to get along fairly well with Misaki. Misaki reminds her of her friend Masami Tokura back home (A male version of Misaki) and feels like she can talk with her the same way she could with Masami. Trivia * The majority of trivia listed under all of Aichi's pages applies to Ai as well. * Ai's dialogue is portrayed in teal text. Gallery Sprite_ai_big.png|A sprite of Ai Ai_and_Audrey2.png|Ai and Audrey talking about Vanguard Category:Aichi Category:Cardfight!! Vanguard characters Category:Female characters Category:Human characters Category:Living characters Category:Characters Category:FG only Category:Gender-Flipped Counterpart Category:Alternate Universe Counterparts